False Dichotomies, Everywhere
Seeing the world in black and white harms humanity as a whole.
Take the pandemic, for example. Oversimplifying complex issues that nobody really can predict has polarised entire nations like nothing before.
And it’s all thanks to social media.
See what I just did that there?
Of course it’s not all because of social media, but I bet you took it at face value just like that.
It’s the bloody engagement. The clicks. The dopamine.
You just got to have engagement.
And given the short attention span available on ultra-popular platforms such as Instagram or Twitter, well… you have to make your point and you have to make it fast. And nothing works better than polarising opinions. Easy to digest, easy to agree.
But never factual.
What to do about it?
Nothing.
I REPEAT, DO NOTHING.
Forget it.
Do absolutely nothing. Ignore.
Stop fighting the windmills.
Let it all burn. I repeat, let the world burn.
Focus on yourself for the next month: get stronger, better, smarter.
Acknowledge what’s happening, and then just calmly zoom out and detach.
For you, you glorious bastard, you’re better than them.
So here’s what I want you to do in September.
Make friends online.
Stay away from the drama and use social media platforms to build your personal networks online.
There’s something I think I realised just a few weeks ago. I tweeted something along the lines of “Online connections are not to be ignored lightly in an increasingly online world.”
I think I’ve been making a misjudgement there before.
People you network with online are still real people in your network. Flesh and blood. I’ve been thinking about this with a bit too much of a boomer-mindset…that you have to have had 13 beers and get flat-out wasted with a person before your connection is somehow mythically strong enough — before you’re valid nodes in each others’ networks.
I was proven wrong as I started again after a long while to make new digital buddies. It feels good. It feels valuable.
And I’m 100% sure it’ll pay off in the future.
I just don’t know yet where and when and how.
Buy it will.
I’ll end this with a podcast that will, 110%, make you feel like you’re the luckiest person alive. It’ll make you want to quit all the bullshit and focus on celebrating life and the gifts you were given.
And trust me, you’ve been given a lot.
Listen to this: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0G5o6GYjWgbSvKG3W2W2xO
You were born among breathtaking abundance.
To not make something of your existence with the cards you’ve been dealt…is a crime against humanity and the universe.
Make something of this September. It’s just beginning.
Make a friend.
Here’s to you,
Simo
PS. I’d love you to follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kaizen_hour ← I talk about self-improvement and try to maintain a positive outlook in life in general there!
